REVIEW: Breakthru – Jorge & Amani Greene

Somewhere in Kireka, Kampala, a revolution is underway. A seasoned ad writer George Wabweyo becomes “Jorge”(and yep, pronounced as it should be, Hor-hey,) teams up with his long time beat making friend Amani Greene to start what’s in my humble opinion, the most exciting collaborative duo in local hip-hop in recent times.

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to sneak into their studio and listen back to back to their up-coming project, “Breakthru” and whooaa… lads just came up with one of the most diverse projects I’ve ever heard and I can almost swear I’m not hyping this. For real though, every local hip-hop is in for a treat – I mean here’s one solid 12+ track album with a song for just about anyone with any taste in rap music. George said something about flirting with the idea of referring to it as “a playlist” rather than album.

I think what will sell this ‘playlist’ the most is the seriousness in quality of the entire product – technically, lyrically and musically. Who doesn’t want to bump all day a project whose makers went all the way? Jorge does drop serious bars – clever and yet still some of the hardest you’ll hear from a surprise rapper around. He turns out to be a really versatile rapper, comfortably jumping from old-school style rap on this track to the new school style on the next, yet staying true to who he is – a profoundly insightful writer. He does sing too, actually, on some tracks. I understand he’s been low-key rapping and beat-making for quite a while.

Amani is charged with most of the sound engineering on the project and one thing that stands out with his production style is his ability to take you by surprise. I lost track of the times I screamed, “Is that a sample?” and got an equally excited “Noope, he made it sound just like that”. Only he could explain how he got a local singing girl to do a hook, lay her vocals to a beat and make it all sound like a classic Motown sampled song. Again, I can’t stress it enough – there’s really so much mind-blowing stuff on Breakthru.

As it is as by time of posting, there aren’t many features on the project but as this is still a work in progress, it is exciting to wait to find out what other talent is brought on to this game changer. Although, as a spoiler, I should let you know celebrated poet Jason Ntaro already left his mark on the project.

Do look out for Breakthru when it finally hits the music stores and streaming services.